Reports

Published on July 11th, 2013 | by Lajo

34

Here comes the sun! A Germany Top 8 Team Analysis and Nationals Report

Hello Everyone! I’m Lajos Kowalewski, also known as Lajo here on NB, and I’m proud to be part of the community since January this year. You may heard of me thanks to Pokémon Showdown!, where I battle a lot, playing against strong players and improving my skills and teams.

Speaking of which, I made a team I had a lot of fun using, and it’s a Sun team! Not being sure that this team could do well, I tested it for about three months, always willing to improve it. And yeah, I used it in the April International Challenge, too, giving me a Top 5 Europe finish, so I was pretty confident in its competitive power, bringing me even to the point to use it at a National.

So here it is, my precious Sun team!

Idea of the Team

Every team needs a starting point. And for me, I was looking for ways to counter Metagross hard. By looking at its counters, I thought Levitate Heatran was the best choice, since most Metagross can’t do anything to Heatran (if they don’t have Hammer Arm), and what’s Levitran without Heatran and Cresselia? But I wanted to make Heatran even more usable, or more accurately, untouchable. While looking at its weaknesses Amoonguss came to mind, absorbing incoming Fighting-type and Water-type moves with Rage Powder. So, of course I had to use TR, That’s why Scrafty fits the 4th Spot perfectly, taking care of two common weaknesses of Cresselia (while Bug-typing is covered by Heatran) and not having the pesky Psychic weakness Amoonguss already has, but actually was immune to it, so it would be hard to counter Amoonguss, too, especially under TR. Let’s talk about Thundurus and Ninetales later!

The Team

Flare (Heatran) (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 4 SDef / 164 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 Def / 84 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Heat Wave
– Earth Power
– Substitute
– Protect

You all know what Heatran can do and is supposed to do, especially if it should stay alive for a long time. I decided to go with the standard moveset here. What’s more interesting is the EV spread. I don’t think many of you will understand it at simply by looking at it, so let’s have a closer look. At first, my target to outspeed was defensive 4 speed-Rotom-W, allowing me to Substitute first and possibly get it up for free if a Hydro Pump missed. But primarily, this speed allows me to outspeed most Cresselias (0-12 EVs in speed, that is) to bring up a Substitute before they start paralyzing with Thunder Wave. This came in handy at some points, like in my Top 16 match against Stefan Kupschus (Maunzi). Next part was SpAtk. By looking at my core you will see that it’s a really defensive team, so I need to hit hard with at least 2 or 3 Pokemon. However, that’s not the only reason. I figured out that 252 Special Attack EVs would let Heatran 2HKO 252 HP/4 Special Defense Tyranitar in the Sun for sure, hitting the very important 50% minimum damage mark, as well as doing about 50% to Volcarona, which is necessary because it would become a big threat to my team otherwise. Thankfully, the leftover EVs in HP and the defenses are hitting special marks, too: Heatran will always stay behind a Substitute if Tyranitar Rock Slides at -1, a very common situation. And Chandelure’s Shadow Ball will do a maximum of 25.0% damage, allowing Heatran’s Substitute to block it 7/8 times. Leftovers are such a good item on Heatran, since it can bring Subtitutes over and over again, and as I mentioned earlier, my Heatran stays in play for a VERY long time.

Luna (Cresselia) (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 220 HP / 28 SAtk / 36 Spd / 124 SDef / 100 Def
Calm Nature
– Skill Swap
– Trick Room
– Psyshock
– Ice Beam

Ah, Cresselia, the queen of the Metagame. You have so many tricks, even I can’t resist using you. No one fills the role to support the team better, bringing up Trick Room or Skill Swapping Levitate to Heatran. There is nothing more to say about the moveset, so let’s have a look at the EVs. 36 speed allows it to be 2 points faster than Heatran, allowing me to scout if my Heatran is faster than Hitmontop (unless it carries awkward 140 Speed), since I’m not always in TR-mode. There is more reason: it’s one point faster than my Ninetales, allowing me to swap Drought before firing off a strong Overheat or Solarbeam in Sun for sure. The HPs are for minimal sand damage at maximum bulk, and 124 Special Defense EVs let it survive 2 Bug Buzzes from Volcarona after eating Sitrus(Of course I’m using Sitrus. It’s the obvious choice to make sure Trick Room or Skill Swap goes up). 28 Special Attack EVs let me 2HKO 252hp/4def Tops, the leftover EVs are in Defense just to take physical attacks like Crunch and Bug Bite a bit better.

Rufus (Scrafty) (M) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 140 Atk / 116 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
– Crunch
– Drain Punch
– Fake Out
– Detect

Looking for ways to get Trick Room up for sure, Fake Out is the best option, especially with Intimidate support. So why not use Scrafty, since it works way better then Hitmontop under TR, and stays on the field longer. I also like the typing of Scrafty and its coverage, threatening both Tyranitar and Cresselia while they can’t really do much to it. The defensive moveset fits me the most. I rely on Scrafty a lot, so Detect is a must-have. The EVs are to make sure it OHKOs Scarf Tyranitars for sure(assuming 4 HP/0 Defense), while surviving a Dragon Gem-boosted Draco Meteor from Modest Hydreigon all the time and from Modest Latios 15/17 times. Chople Berry ensures that it survives a Fighting Gem-boosted Close Combat from Hitmontop with a bit more than 50%  health and makes Tyranitar look really poor with Low Lick, which deals less then 15% damage after Intimidate.

Homer (Amoonguss) (M) @ Black Sludge
Trait: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 84 Def / 172 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd / 0 Atk
– Spore
– Giga Drain
– Rage Powder
– Protect

And now I make you all cry. Amoonguss makes you all cry. It’s so pesky, no one wants to play against it. And to make matters worse, it has Regenerator. Do you know how many 4-0s I’ve gotten only thanks to Amoonguss? It Spores everything in its way and trolls by switching if I predict a Protect, just to take the next hit way better. It helps with so much of my team’s set-up under TR, like putting up a Substitute with Heatran or switching in Ninetales to change weather. Heatran and Scrafty can deal with all threats of Amoonguss pretty well, while Amoonguss deals with Fighting-types, the only weakness Scrafty and Heatran have in common, providing good synergy.

Oh, and you should know swapping Regenerator is quite helpful, too. Once, I took a Night Slash from Bisharp on my Cresselia while Amoonguss Spored it and I Trick Roomed. I Skill Swapped Regenerator and Spored next turn, and after switching out Cresselia he was like: “It took heavy damage? No way!”

I don’t know why Biosci’s EV spread is so popular, especially with Black Sludge on it. This spread does exactly the same, but it takes Special Attacks a bit better. It can survive 2 Flamethrowers from Hydreigon and even a +1 Heat Wave from Volcarona, and even a Choice Specs-boosted Hidden Power Flying from Timid Thundurus-T!. Of course, it survives Draco Meteor from all Dragons, too, and with Black Sludge and Regenerator, it will survive long after that.

Enel (Thundurus) (M) @ Charti Berry
Trait: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 84 HP / 4 Def / 60 SDef / 252 Spd / 108 SAtk
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
– Thunder Wave
– Taunt
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Ice]

So, the previous three Pokemon comprise my team’s core. Of course, the course has its weaknesses. First of all, Taunt and spore. If my opponent can prevent me from set-up, I struggle hard. Also, having another method of speed control is always a good thing, and most of my team is in the middle speed tier, so why not add Thunder Wave support, too? At first I tried out Gyarados here, since it can use Taunt and Thunder Wave too, and it couples those moves with resistances to all of Heatran’s weaknesses. But 2 Intimidates are very risky with how popular Tornadus and Bisharp are, and Prankster is a thing, too. So I looked for things to counter these problems and– of course- I came up with a Thundurus by myself. First, it was bulky, but I struggled again with the likes of fast Thundurus, or to be more accurate, nearly every ThundurusI came across was faster than my bulky set, so I had to use a faster one. But how much speed would be enough? Max Speed is enough! Why? Well, 2 other threats made me use it: first, Liepard. You see it a lot these days thanks to its unique Fake-out Prankster combo, especially with Breloom. But it won’t Swagger me and it can’t Encore me if I Taunt it first, so I at least had to outspeed it. And then I found another big threat in Tornadus, since my Trick Room mode is weak to Flying and Scrafty’s Intimidate also gives him a Defiant-boost. These advantages don’t matter if I win the speed tie and catch my opponent off-guard, and even if I lose the tie, I may had Fake Outed the other Pokemon and lost Scrafty, but Thundurus will OHKO Tornadus, too, so it’s only a one-for-one. And the other EVs? Well, they are a bit special. Like I said, Tornadus gives me issues, and it’s mostly paired with Tyranitar or Breloom, so I EVed it to take a Flying Gem boosted +1 Acrobatics including Sand damage all the time, which requires 84 HP. Thundurus has to take advantage of its Speed, so I at least wanted it to OHKO Landorus-T for sure (and Scarfers may run 60hp), which needs 108 Special Attack EVs. The Leftovers were put in Special Defense, and that’s quite helpful too, since it will only take 49% maximum damage from 28 Special Attack Cresselia’s Ice Beam and survive a +1 Heat Wave from Volcarona for sure, normally even with previous Fake Out damage. Oh, and Charti Berry works quite well, especially after Intimidate. Since Rock is the only weakness I can’t cover at least twice, people will always bring Tyranitar if they have it in their team and Landorus could get an OHKO with Stone Edge otherwise.

Flare’s Pet (Ninetales) (F) @ Fire Gem
Trait: Drought
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SDef / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 8 Spd
– SolarBeam
– Overheat
– Power Swap
– Protect

And now the Pokemon you all have waited for: Ninetales! Ninetales makes this team what it is, a Sun team. And how many Sun teams do actually work? I don’t know, but my team works pretty well. And this Ninetales set is for one great purpose.
Before Ninetales came to my mind, I had a good match up against most teams already, besides rain-centric ones. Well, if Heatran is the star and main hitter on your team, obviously rain is going to be an issue. So, I thought about ways to deal with Rain. Gastrodon comes to mind, and was quite helpful if I could Skill Swap Storm Drain to Heatran, but wasn’t helpful against Thundurus-T and opposing Gastrodon. Also, Rainroom would beat me hard. I had almost nothing to use against an Escavalier behind a Substitute under Trick Room in Rain. Then I faced a Sun-team in the March International Challenge which ran a Ninetales with Overheat and Power Swap, which put me in a corner really badly, but somehow I barely won the match. So I tried it out for myself, and once I did, I never looked back.

At first you will see it only runs 8 speed IVs. Why? Because with this Speed, it’s one point slower than Cresselia (allowing me to swap Drought before attacking) and one point faster than Heatran, so I can give it a  Flash Fire boost before it attacks. This worked pretty well, especially against Rain teams where Skill Swapping Drought is quite helpful, and against Hail teams, which struggle hard if switching to activate Snow Warning does nothing. Also, Trick Room teams just can’t stand the pure power of Sun. Do you know that a gem boosted Overheat in sun from Ninetales is the most powerful Special Attack in this metagame? It’s 10% stronger then a Dragon Gem boosted Draco Meteor from Modest Latios, letting me take a lot of surprise KOs on the likes of Scrafty, Hitmontop, or bulky Thundurus (101% minimum damage on 252 HP/252 Special Defense sets), which is why I run 252 Special Attack, too. Oh, and 252hp/124 Special Defense Gastrodon will be OHKOed by Solarbeam without Rindo Berry all the time, too. I need the maximum HP to survive a Fire Gem boosted Overheat from Volcarona for sure and to take an Earthquake from Garchomp at -1 Attack. Since the EV spread is not as special as on all my other Pokemon, let’s have a look at the moveset more closely. Overheat not only deals a good chunk of damage, its side effect comes in handy here because of Power Swap. Power Swap is just great, crippling all these special attackers and allowing Ninetales to fire off another full power Overheat. The best part is crippling Calm Mind Suicune, Calm Mind Cresselia or even Quiver Dance Volcarona and boosting myself instead. Once, I crippled a +2Volcarona and swapped the +2 to my Flash Fire-boosted Heatran in the Sun. If I did not have Power Swap, I would be hopeless against the likes of Calm Mind Suicune. Solarbeam is for Rain teams of course, but it will also 2HKO Tyranitar in Sun, which is quite helpful even though I rarely bring Ninetales against Sand.

Common Team Leads

+

This is my scout lead and also my Trick Room mode lead, with Scrafty and Heatran are in the back if I face a Sand team or Ninetales and Heatran in the back if I face a Rain team.

They work pretty well, since I can Ragepowder and Trick Room or use Protect with my Amoonguss and may get Trick Room up for free, just so I can spore everything after that. Even the omnipresent Hitmontop+Thundurus lead struggles hard, as I may switch Cresselia to Scrafty while Protecting and then use Fake Out + Spore on Thundurus after that while taking a Close Combat from Hitmontop, which lets me scout the set, and Close Combat won’t do much thanks to Intimidate and Chople.

+

If I see Taunt but still feel like I need Trick Room, I have to go with Cresselia + Scrafty, since Ragepowdering a Taunt on my Amoonguss won’t help me because then I can’t Spore then. Of course, Intimidate helps Cresselia to be even bulkier, too.

+

This is my go-to lead against teams which are able to prevent me from setting up as long as I won’t have to sacrifice something, such as against Breloom+Tornadus. Mostly, I would go with Ninetales or Cresselia and Heatran in the back, trying to paralyze my foes and cleaning up with powerful moves afterwards.

+

My pure offense lead which destroys nearly every Trick Room team, and of course Amoonguss and Scrafty would be in the back. Want to Fake Out my Ninetales? I bring out a Substitute then. Want to Fake Out my Heatran? Just let me OHKO your Scrafty then. It’s also a good lead against non-weather teams, putting high pressure on my opponent and be able to deal with Ground moves with Thundurus, Cresselia or even Scrafty in the back, or putting even more pressure with Flash Fire boosted Heatran for later.

Everything+Everything

Since this is a complete team, of course every part has its role. I may lead with Scrafty and Heatran if I feel like I could bring up a free Substitute, or with Amoonguss+Thundurus if I have to counter the Gini team, since Breloom can do nothing there. Heatran+Amoonguss helps against Liepard+Breloom, Ninetales and Thundurus can put high pressure and an early lead advantage against no-weather teams and starts like Thundurus+Metagross. So you see, the leads above are only the most usable, but I can change my style every now and then which makes the team so unpredictable.

Threats

Well, if I speak of threats, I have to speak more of combos. I feel like I can counter every Pokémon with at least 2 team members, but some are very hard to deal with if they were supported well.

Man, I really hate this guy. He’s fast, strong, and he profits from Intimidate. As long as I can set up TR, it’s no problem, since Crunch and Ice Beam together would KO it, but if Breloom or Hitmonop is its partner… I have to go with Thundurus and hope to win the speed tie, or I will already lose one teammate.

Togekiss, I hate you. Why is your success of flinching me 100%? And then you have Follow Me. Can you please just stop annoying me? Thundurus helps here, since I’d rather try to paralyze this thing then rely on Trick Room where I flinch x times and do nothing. But then the next Pokemon will destroy me…

MOLD BREAKER. Yeah, Levitate Heatran is useless, and I can’t cover ground without Thundurus. And what can I do to it? Drain Punch or Fake Out with Scrafty, since Heatran and Ninetales are death fodder. And here comes Togekiss. Great!

BW2 has been nice to Hydreigon, allows it to use Earth Power in addition to it’s already good movepool. And that move makes a huge difference here, since it can be devastating to my team if I can’t take care of it. A Hydreigon with Earth Power cost me my Top 8 match, too. This Dragon is really scary if you don’t play any Dragons.

Rock Slide, Close Combat, and so much speed. Terrakion can be a huge threat, although every Pokemon on my team has a way to deal with it. It’s just its Speed that hurts me, so I need speed control to take care of it, and if paired with Ragepowder/ Follow Me, I can’t really touch it.

This guy can stop my setup if paired with things like Tornadus or Liepard. I have to be careful here, since it’s faster than five of my six Pokemon, and if I’m unlucky and have 3-4 turn sleeps, I struggle to fight back.

Match-ups

There are some other threats which can be a pain if not taken out early, like Suicune, Sableye, Bisharp or Raikou. More interesting is the overall match up, since you all want to know how am I supposed to deal with opposing weather, right?

Sand – 
**/***

Sand is a tough match-up, especially Garchomp with Sand Veil. I often choose to go with my main core of four here, which means Cresselia is the only counter for Garchomp, who is always threatened by Tyranitar and Sand damage. If Garchomp gets a Substitute off and I miss an Ice Beam, it’s really hard to fight back, but thankfully this happens rarely enough that I win most of my matches against Sand.

Rain – 
***/***

I love playing rain if it’s standard offensive. I can counter it so hard, not only due to Trick Room and Amoonguss, but also Sun, which makes them struggle mightily. It’s even more enjoyable if they play Scizor or Escavalier and have to bring them as it’s their only counter to Cresselia just to be punished by Heatran under sun.

But well, some rain teams run different stuff like Terrakion, Hydreigon or Breloom now. and that’s a big problem as you will see on my threat list, so even Rain can beat my sun if built well.

Hail – 
***/***

No need to talk here. Swapping Drought means it’s nearly over, and here comes the best part of a Sun team: YOU CAN`T BE FROZEN! Sorry Mr. Abomasnow, you won’t turn me into an ice cube.

Sun – 
**/***

That awkward moment when Sun plays Sun. The biggest problem here is the surprise factor, since you won’t see many Sun teams, and there are so many sets on Ninetales, sometimes even Hidden Power Ground just to counter Heatran. Also, Sleep Powder can be annoying if it always hits. I don’t like playing against a Sun team, but I really enjoy playing Sun for myself!

Report: German National Bochum

Round 1: Sebastian G.
 

I was so glad. Round 1 and a heavy rain team with Gastrodon. I led with Amoonguss and Cresselia and he led Toxicroak and Gastrodon. I protected with my Amoonguss and set up Trick Room as he Protected with Toxicroak and Ice Beamed Amoonguss. Then I Skill Swapped Storm Drain and put Toxicroak to sleep as he tried to Sucker Punch me and put another Ice Beam on Amoonguss, which hit for 1/3 damage. Then I took out Toxicroak and put Gastrodon to sleep. In came Politoed. Well, I had Ninetales in the back and didn’t even need Heatran at this point, so it was a solid 4-0 and a good start!

1-0

Round 2: Han …
 

So my second team is a pretty solid Sand team with Garchomp AND Volcarona. I really needed Trick Room here, but was scared of Thundurus, so I started with Cresselia and Scrafty as he lead with Metagross and Thundurus. I set up Trick Room while Faking Out Thundurus, and Scrafty took a Meteor Mash, giving Metagross the Attack boost. Since I was pretty sure he wouldn’t Taunt Cresselia then, I switched in Heatran and tried to Skill Swap, but he did Taunt Cresselia and Heatran took Meteor Mash damage. If Metagross had Earthquake it was pretty much over… but it didn’t, so I was able to deal good damage to Thundurus and nearly OHKO Metagross, but he Meteor Mashed my Cresselia and get the second Attack raise while Heatran took Thunderbolt damage. It sounds like a bad turn, but this actually let me know he had no Earthquake on Metagross, so I let Cresselia die the following turn to KO both Metagross and Thundurus. In came Latios and Tyranitar, while I brought in Scrafty. I switched right back to Amoonguss and put up a Substitute as he puts in a Substitute with Latios, while he Low Kicked into a Protect. I Protected with Amoonguss while putting up a Substitute with Heatran, taking the Rock Slide behind the Substitute and Protecting  his Draco Meteor. He then went for Dragon Pulse on Heatran and used Rock Slide, while I switched back to Scrafty and used Earth Power on Tyranitar. Scrafty was at 37/171 hp now, but Low Kick only did 23 damage (thanks Chople Berry!!!). I took out Tyranitar and Latios couldn’t do a thing to Heatran. He wasn’t even able to take out my Amoonguss, so I won 3-0.

2-0

Round 3: Mark …
 

Well, look at this team. I didn’t how he could be at 2-0. I decided to try out Ninetales again, in case he really uses Hail, since Sun would help a lot here. I used a Cresselia and Scrafty lead with Amoonguss and Ninetales in the back. I 4-0’d him pretty easily, just one point of the battle was scary: his Articuno ran sheer cold(maybe he was pretty lucky before), but thankfully he missed on Scrafty. Oh, and Amoonguss survived 2 Ice Beams in a row.

3-0

Round 4: Luigi Lo Guidice (LProx)
 

The 4th Team and the 3rd Garchomp?! What the heck… I was scared by his Thundurus and pretty sure he would lead with it, so I started with Scrafty and Amoonguss while he led with Thundurus and Cresselia. Perfect, I thought, but then I took enormous damage from Psychic on my Amoonguss (3/4 of my health), which told me that the Cresselia had Choice Specs. Thankfully, I had Cresselia and Heatran in the back, so this thing couldn’t do much to me. I Crunched the Thundurus while switching to Cresselia and took a critical hit Psychic with a Special Defense drop…wow. I attacked Thundurus once more, but he got the early wake up and paralyzed my Scrafty before dying to Ice Beam and Crunch, while my Cresselia got another Psychic off and already had to use Sitrus. He brings in Tyranitar, and while I’m switching out Cresselia for Heatran and Scrafty for Amoonguss, he Rock Slides before Cresselia attacks and Psychics Heatran. I figured his Tyranitar must be Choice Scarfed, too. I double switched while he switched out Cresselia for Garchomp and used Rock Slide again. I tried to Fake Out Garchomp (with success) and Cresselia flinched. I then took two Rock Slides while Cresselia set up Trick Room and Scrafty flinched, which hurts, since I’d have been able to KO Tyranitar. Then he switched out Tyranitar for Cresselia, I double targeted Garchomp but Drain Punch missed and it had Yache Berry, so Scrafty goes down to Dragon Claw and Cresselia dies to Sand. In came Amoonguss and Heatran. I put Cresselia to sleep and protected while he Earthquaked. Then he switched out Garchomp for Tyranitar and I protected with Amoonguss and put up a Substitute with Heatran, and Cresselia indeed woke up. I Spored it again and Heat Waved with Heatran, burning Tyranitar while he used Rock Slide again. One turn later, I Giga Drained Tyranitar and Heat Waved to deal good damage, but the time ran out. Cresselia was at 1-4% and Tyranitar was at 7-11%, which meant a turn more and we would both have 2 Pokemon left and I would win to damage. But he time stalled me out and won 3-2.

3-1

So, I’m under high pressure now since I knew we would only play 7 rounds and with no bye, I have to win all upcoming matches. And my next opponent was no other name than

Round 5: Florian Wurdack (DaFlo)
 

I heard this guy is pretty good, so he wouldn’t be dumb enough to just lead Politoed+Kingdra. Also, I often faced rain teams with Metagros,s and they lead it against other weather, and if he’s scared of Cresselia and Amoonguss he would start with Chandelure and Metagross. So I led with Scrafty and Heatran, with Ninetales and Cresselia in the back. He did end up leading Chandelure + Metagross, which allowed me to Fake Out and set up a Substitute right away, as he immediately switched to Politoed+Kingdra. At this point, the battle was already in my hands. I switched Scrafty for Ninetales which takes a Hydro pump from Kingdra, while Politoed breaks Heatran’s Substitute with Scald. He then switched Politoed out for Chandelure while Scrafty came in again, and I Protected Heatran to prevent damage. Chandelure couldn’t do much, even after Substitute, so I have my way with its partners, Earth Powering everything. I didn’t even need Cresselia, but at least he was able to take out my Ninetales with a second Hydro pump, so it was “only” 3-0.

4-1

Round 6: Nico Platz (wushl)
 

What a pesky team. I used Thundurus with Scrafty next to it, since I was pretty sure he would lead Scarf Tyranitar+Tornadus. He led Tornadus with Heatran instead, but, maybe cause of my sun, I figured my lead would handle that well. Since I started with Fake Out, I was pretty sure he would double Protect first turn, or at least with Tornadus, so I switched Scrafty out for Heatran and tried to paralyze his Heatran. BUT he didn’t protect with Tornadus, instead he tried Acrobatics, which even Heatran doesn’t like after a Defiant boost, and Heatran used Substitute. His play confuses me even more since he switched out his Tornadus then for Gastrodon and Protected with Heatran, as I protected with mine because I was afraid of Superpower. I thought swapping Heatran KOs would be my best choice here so I double targeted his Heatran, but I only took a Scald from Gastrodon, so my Heatran actually lived with 15-19%! He brought in Tornadus. I protected with Heatran as he did Tornadus, which lead to a dead round. Then he switched to Tyranitar as I switched to Scrafty (predicting the switch), but he also goes for a different move, Ice Beaming my Thundurus and freezing it, but only after I was able to paralyze his Scarf Tyranitar with Thunderbolt. Since he had to switch, I Fake Out his Gastrodon while bringing in Ninetales as he switched in Tornadus. I thought he may want to take out Scrafty, but he Protected instead and Scalded my fox, so Overheat did nothing, but Scald did. The same situation happens again a few turns later, where I Solarbeamed his Gastrodon this time and successfully took it out. I was up 4-2 at that point, but his Tornadus was still a problem. It all came down to the turn where I had to thaw out or he would sweep me with his Tornadus, and Thundurus thaws out. What a hard match, only because I overpredicted turn 1!

5-1

Round 7: Michael Riechert (Michilele)

My last match! If I win here, I’m in Top Cut; if not, I’m out… and this team looked hard to beat. I decided to go the paralysis-sweep route, so I leaded with Scrafty and Thundurus with Heatran and Ninetales in the back, while he lead with Hydreigon and Landorus-T. I Faked Out the Hydreigon and went for Hidden Power Ice, taking out his Landorus in one shot! Offensive Thundurus pretty much made the game here, as I Paralyzed his Hydreigon and nearly everything else (he brought Ttar and Cresselia in the back) and cleaned up with Heatran and Scrafty.

6-1

Top cut! I waited for the results and was hugging all my friends, couldn’t believe I made it this far with a SUN TEAM!

The results came out and I was listed 12th, so I had to face Stefan Kupschus in Top16.

Top16: Stefan Kupschus (Maunzi)
 

Finally a team without weather! I was really happy to show the power of sun at its best, so I had to lead with Ninetales, but I wasn’t sure if he was planning on me using my Trick Room mode or Thunder Wave mode.

Game 1
I was hoping he would play on Trick Room and go for Cresselia and Ninetales with Amoonguss and Heatran in the back, as he led with Zapdos and Cresselia. Trying to take out Zapdos in one shot, I went for Overheat and missed, while he paralyzed my Ninetales and Thunderbolted Cresselia, which Trick Room’d. Trying a second Overheat which also missed, he Paralysed my Cressela before I used an Ice Beam on his Zapdos. The next turns were really frustrating. He paralyzed and Swaggered my team, but as I was finally able to take out Zapdos, Cresselia went down, too. The game was at 3-3 while there was only 1 minute of time left, and I had a nearly full health Amoonguss, Ninetales and nearly full health Scrafty while he had a full health Cresselia, Garchomp in red and one I didn’t see yet, so we both were pretty sure I would win due to time (I time stalled to avoid more Thunder Waves and Swagger, of course). But he won, which was really awkward. We asked the staff if it was a mistake by the game, and us was said that the HP in total decide the winner (that’s new in BW2), and since he had Gastrodon in the back, he had slightly more HP.

Game 2
I led with Scrafty and Thundurus with Cresselia and Heatran in the back. I was able to paralyze and take care of his Zapdos, which had Roost, thanks to a HP Ice crit and crunched his Cresselia to death, but lost my Thundurus after some Ice Beams. Then, yet again, Cresselia went into paralysis mode. It came down to Gastrodon and Garchomp against my paralyzed Cresselia and Heatran under Trick Room, while his Gastrodon didn’t have Earth Power, so I tried to Skill Swap Storm Drain to protect Heatran, but two fully paralyzeds really made me struggle as my Heatran was almost dead, but thankfully I finally got on Storm Drain Cresselia while Heatran took out Garchomp, and Gastrodon had Icy Wind, Recover and Protect, so he gave up since he would have lost to time.
Fun fact: We already were the last guys battling in this round and time limit for the round was already over, but we asked for the time for our last match and got it.

Game 3
This game was epic and I played my best play in this game. Unfortunately, I forgot to save the battle, so I will explain every turn in detail.
I led again with Thundurus and Scrafty, he led with Scrafty and Zapdos. I Faked Out his Zapdos and paralyzed Scrafty, which got a full paralysis right away.
Then, I switched Scrafty out for Ninetales while Thundurus paralyzed Zapdos as he went for a Thunderbolt and Stone Edge on my Thundurus, which survived thanks to the Charti Berry. To put the pressure on, I went for an Overheat on Scrafty which is a sure OHKO (oh I loved the look in his eyes, which got bigger and bigger!) and put some damage on Zapdos with Hidden power Ice before Thundurus went down to a Thunderbolt.
At this time I was worried that he would bring in Garchomp, but by his playstyle I was sure he would bring Cresselia and try to paralyze my Pokemon first, so I switched in Heatran. And I was right, he brings in Cresselia.
This was perfect setup for me. I Power Swapped with Zapdos(he didn’t see this move before), knowing Heatran’s Substitute won’t break after that, and put a Substitute up, while he Paralyzed my Ninetales and went for Thunderbolt on Heatran, which didn’t break the Substitute.
To put more pressure with Heatran, I opted to go for Overheat on it. Heatran did solid damage with Heat Wave on his Cresselia and switched-in Garchomp, while Cresselia did some damage with Psychic on Ninetales.
I know he would try to break Heatran’s Substitute now to paralyze it, so I switched Ninetales out for Scrafty and Substituted with Heatran again. Indeed, he used Rock Slide (Dunno why, but this broke the Substitute, too) but saved my Heatran from potential paralysis because I Substituted again.
I had a good feel of his playstyle now, predicting him to try Thunder Wave my Scrafty while protecting with Garchomp, so I switched Scrafty immediately back to my already paralyzed Ninetales which worked out perfectly, and Cresselia took huge Flash Fire-boosted Heat wave Wamage (45-50%).
I switched back to Scrafty and used Heat Wave again, taking out Cresselia and putting Garchomp in the red zone. In comes Zapdos.
To finish the game, I Faked Out his Garchomp and Heat Waved, taking out both of his Pokemon and advancing to the Top 8!

Top8: Jamal et Moutalaka (Toasdt)

Game 1
Huh, will this be like my Round 7 match-up? This lead worked in that match, so I led again with Scrafty and Thundurus as he led with Hydreigon and Landorus (wow, almost exactly like Round 7?) But Toasdt was smarter, Protecting with Hydreigon and switching to Metagross which takes the Hidden Power Ice. I thought he would Draco Meteor my Thundurus, so I switched in Heatran and Drain Punched Hydreigon, but he used Draco Meteor and Earthquake, and Heatran went down on the switch. I had to bring in Ninetales. I thought he would switch out Metagross to Tyranitar and Hydreigon to Lando-T, going for Overheat on Hydreigon and Drain punch on Metagross. I predicted right, but couldn’t do a thing to his Hydreigon and Metagross after that, so I forfeited and prepared for the second battle.

Game 2
I knew that I would need Levitate Heatran, since he already had two Earthquake users on his team. I led with Cresselia and Scrafty and he went for Metagross+Hydreigon. I switched Scrafty immediately for Heatran and Skill Swapped Levitate, while Heatran tanked Dragon Gem Draco and Meteor Mash like a boss. The second turn he Draco Meteored again, putting my Heatran down to 48/187 HP, so I could still bring up a sub with only 2 HP left. At this point it was over. He couldn’t do a thing to my Heatran, which got to over 70 HP till the end of the battle thanks to Leftovers. Amoonguss put pressure under TR, while Scrafty took care of Tyranitar (he had Tyranitar and Landorus-T in the back). I also saw Flamethrower on Hydreigon, which meant I didn’t need to be afraid of Earth Power.

Game 3
I led with Cresselia and Amoonguss while he led Hydreigon and Metagross again. My one and only mistake during this fantastic weekend happened here. I thought to myself “nah, he wouldn’t double attack my Amoonguss and give me a chance for a free TR, he will attack Cresselia with both.” So I switched again to Heatran for swapping Levitate, but before I was able to do that, he EARTH POWERED it. Yeah, he ran Earth Power AND Flamethrower, but no Dark Pulse on his Hydreigon. He really caught me off guard with that, and since I had nothing against his Metagross now, it was already over.
If I would just have protected and went for Trick Room turn 1, I really would have got TR up for free and could work from there, but, well, I think for the first National I did pretty well. With a sun team!

Closing Remarks

I love this team so much, especially since I nearly made it all for myself. Wolfey’s and Nitesh’s Worlds teams gave me inspiration for my team, but that’s all for outside sources. I have so much fun using it, and I win a lot of games with it, which makes it even more worth playing. And getting Top 8 in an event with 218 Players around makes me even more proud, especially since this was my 2nd National, and the first doesn’t really count…. I also met some guys there from Nugget Bridge like Baz, Kyriakou, Picollo, 13Yoshi37, DaFlo, drug_duck and Lati, which made the event even more enjoyable. I want to improve my team even more, and maybe you will see a similar version in the next International Challenge!
Sun can be great, this team has proven it. So I encourage you: try out Ninetales. If you can make a team that works well, you will find yourself having a lot of fun with it and maybe like me, you just won’t play any other team besides it just because you like it so much!
So to summarize it, as Ben Kyriakou said: “You know what a good sun team is? One that doesn’t even need the sun.”

About the Author

Lajo Lajo plays competitive since 2012 and is known for using underused Pokémon. He loves to use Trick Room and his favorite Pokémon is Scrafty.

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